Once again it’s been drought season on this blog. It’s been a busy past month and a half and while I’ve probably had plenty of chances to update this thing I’ve been relaxing a bit more. We’ll play the update game once again to cover some highlights of all of the time I’ve missed.
In November I went out to Milwaukee with my buddy “Dirty” (the nickname isn’t for what you’d assume so clear your mind of all thoughts of the creepy roofie-slipping party guy). We visited a couple high school friends that I get out to see a few times a year and caught a Bucks game (OT win versus the Mavs), hit Milwaukee’s version of Brother’s, and went down to Chicago for a day where we attended Shedd’s Aquarium, ate the original Chicago-style pizza at Pizzaria UNO and had a few drinks at the ESPN Zone. In that same time period I also found out one of my friends was now engaged and was asked to be one of the groom’s men so that was a great way to top off a fun three day trip out of town.
The following week I started my full-time gig at the Industrial Design firm. It’s been going pretty good so far. It’s a smaller firm (17 people), but for the ID industry I guess that’s medium sized. I have to say that the space we work in is amazing and it’s definitely a creative environment, which I like a lot. The people are pretty nice too, which makes any job better. The biggest challenge for me is coming in as a Marketing guy and learning enough about Industrial Design and their process to eventually be able to write and talk about it intelligently. That’s going to be a bit of a hurdle and is part of the reason they haven’t thrown a town of work at me yet. I’ll get there with time. This is a good place to start my career and gain experience doing a lot of different things since I’m the sole Marketing and Publicity guy. In my heart, I know I’m going to want to get back over to the ad agency side or get a position with Red Bull if I can, eventually.
When you’re working a full-time job, the weeks go by like days. December has flown by and I feel like I haven’t had much of a chance to stop and take in my favorite time of the year. For Christmas this year I’m heading out to Wisconsin with my family and significant other to spend the Christmas with my Dad’s side of the family. I haven’t been out there in a while and even though it’s real small-town, I enjoy it. Christmas Eve will be at my Aunt and Uncle’s new house and then on Christmas morning the girlfriend and I will be getting up early to drive to back to the cities and spend the day with her family in St. Paul. Thank God I have Monday off to relax after all that driving.
To change subject, I'm just going to say that I was sooooo wrong about my prediction for the second half of the Packers' season. I'm back on the Sherman must go tip, and pray that the Packers find a good replacement coach, get Favre to come back and patch up some of the gaping holes in their lineup in the offseason. Actually this editorial sums up what I'd like to see happen quite nicely.
Since it’s the end of the year, you’ve probably noticed that every media outlet, blog, etc. has been coming out with their 2005 lists. Lists of the best music, books, movies, events and probably even celebrity sex tapes. Fimoculous has a good collection of categories from all sorts of media. My love for music is surely no secret, so although I’m no Pitchfork writer, I thought I’d post my top 10 albums of 2005. Drumroll please…
10. Lucero – Nobody’s Darlings
9. The Shout Out Louds – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
8. Spoon – Gimme Fiction
7. The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday
6. The White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan
5. Josh Rouse - Nashville
4. Ryan Adams – Cold Roses
3. Kanye West – Late Registration
2. Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary
1. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
Sorry, no Sufjan Stevens or Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah for me. While they were ubiquitous in 2005, topping most pretentious indie writers’ best of lists, they’re not my cup o’ tea.
No clear plans for New Year’s yet. I’m sure my friends and I will end up getting crazy sauced as usual so I’ll fill you in on that (and maybe include some visual evidence) in a later post...assuming I actually update this thing in 2006. To close the year, I thought I’d revert back to the customary top 5. Here’s five for 2005 and five for the coming year.
Top 5 of 2005 (as always, in no particular order)
1. Graduating college
2. Getting a job
3. Two-year anniversary with Vanessa
4. Learning how to snowboard and getting really into it
5. Jon’s Minnetonka boat/downtown graduation party -tie- Spring Milwaukee trip
Looking forward to in 2006
1. Getting a new car
2. Vanessa’s brother’s wedding in Maui
3. Going to Vegas or NY
4. Seeing where my career goes
5. (Hopefully) seeing a healthy and vastly improved Packer team
That’s all for now. Merry Christmas and God Bless.
- EH
P.S. There’s no “War on Christmas”
Friday, December 23, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
A glimmer of hope?
The 2005 Green Bay Packers beat the Atlanta Falcons 33-25 yesterday. It's true. All sarcasm aside, I had a good feeling about the game yesterday morning but I'd be lying if I told you I thought they would win for sure. As ugly as their 1-7 record is, the Packers are better. Almost every loss has come by a few points and no team in the NFL has had their offense decimated by injury worse than the Packers. But the team has played hard and God sent them a gift in the quick, hard-running, and humble Samkon Gado. I'm not going to get overhyped about the Pack, but I do think the newfound run game is going to get them over the hump. The defense is top 10 right now and has played consistently solid all season, outplaying the expectations of most critics. Given this equation and the fact that Sherman has actually had the team practicing and playing with heart all year, I predict a 6-2 record for the rest of the season and believe it wouldn't even be a long shot to win out. Oh yeah, if this happens, I'm still a critic of Sherman but I WILL be the first to eat my words.
I'm only a week late, but if I actually updated this thing more I would've been talking about the bathroom stall bar-sex between the two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders. There have been thousands of stories and jokes about this all over the internet so all I will say to you is that I celebrate with my fellow man in the fact that one of our greatest fantasies has finally played itself into reality. SHA'MON!
In news pertinent to my real life, I found out last week that I will be starting my "real" job the first week in December which is pretty good news overall. It'll be nice to start making some decent money and have a consistent schedule, and I am excited about going to work for the firm as it seems to be a growing organization with a creative environment. Of course any recent college grad is going to be apprehensive about entering the 40-hour work week but we all have to do it at some point. The good thing is I have a few weeks to ease out of the part-time, lax lifestyle and enjoy some free time before starting. I'm looking forward to a long Thanksgiving weekend with family and possibly being in Iowa for the Gophers game and then visiting a friend in Milwaukee the following week. We're planning on attending a game between the surprisingly-hot Bucks and the Mavericks and of course having a few good nights of Wisconsin bar debauchery. I hope to finally check out Wolski's Tavern and bring home the infamous bumper sticker that shows you closed the place.
Randomness:
If you live in Minneapolis and like the band Spoon you should be very interested in going to your local bar and trying to win tickets to their 400 Bar show on Schell. Hope I'm lucky enough to be there December 8th.
After hearing and reading about VH1's latest reality hit Breaking Bonduce, I finally caught the show by chance today. It's what else but a reality series following the life of former Brady boy Danny Bonaduce through the trials and tribulations of his marriage and overcoming addictions to alcohol, steroids, and vicodin. After one episode I'll say you won't believe you're wasting your time watching it, yet you'll be highly entertained.
I'm really looking forward to the following: having HBO and watching the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, and listening to covers of Christmas songs by great bands in the next couple months (no joke, I love Christmas).
I'm going to leave you there. Too much blog writing make Eric something something.
- EH
CURRENT LISTENING: Shout Out Louds - Howl, Howl, Gaff, Gaff
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Jarhead
I'm only a week late, but if I actually updated this thing more I would've been talking about the bathroom stall bar-sex between the two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders. There have been thousands of stories and jokes about this all over the internet so all I will say to you is that I celebrate with my fellow man in the fact that one of our greatest fantasies has finally played itself into reality. SHA'MON!
In news pertinent to my real life, I found out last week that I will be starting my "real" job the first week in December which is pretty good news overall. It'll be nice to start making some decent money and have a consistent schedule, and I am excited about going to work for the firm as it seems to be a growing organization with a creative environment. Of course any recent college grad is going to be apprehensive about entering the 40-hour work week but we all have to do it at some point. The good thing is I have a few weeks to ease out of the part-time, lax lifestyle and enjoy some free time before starting. I'm looking forward to a long Thanksgiving weekend with family and possibly being in Iowa for the Gophers game and then visiting a friend in Milwaukee the following week. We're planning on attending a game between the surprisingly-hot Bucks and the Mavericks and of course having a few good nights of Wisconsin bar debauchery. I hope to finally check out Wolski's Tavern and bring home the infamous bumper sticker that shows you closed the place.
Randomness:
If you live in Minneapolis and like the band Spoon you should be very interested in going to your local bar and trying to win tickets to their 400 Bar show on Schell. Hope I'm lucky enough to be there December 8th.
After hearing and reading about VH1's latest reality hit Breaking Bonduce, I finally caught the show by chance today. It's what else but a reality series following the life of former Brady boy Danny Bonaduce through the trials and tribulations of his marriage and overcoming addictions to alcohol, steroids, and vicodin. After one episode I'll say you won't believe you're wasting your time watching it, yet you'll be highly entertained.
I'm really looking forward to the following: having HBO and watching the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, and listening to covers of Christmas songs by great bands in the next couple months (no joke, I love Christmas).
I'm going to leave you there. Too much blog writing make Eric something something.
- EH
CURRENT LISTENING: Shout Out Louds - Howl, Howl, Gaff, Gaff
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Jarhead
Monday, October 24, 2005
Fire Mike Sherman Pt. 2
I said it two games into the season and I'm saying it again. There's no excuse for yesterday's loss (well except maybe Ryan Longwell's foot). Green Bay played not to lose the whole second half. No blitzes on Culpepper after having great success going at him in the first. What happens? The Vikings offense comes alive. Then, on the game-tying drive Sherman calls for a draw play on 3rd and 2 when Favre was hot the whole way down the field and you have the 3rd string running back in the game. Why merely try to tie a game and send it to overtime rather than march down and try to win it? That is what you call coaching with no balls.
I'm sorry, I know the outcome of the game usually depends more on the execution of the players than the coaching, but it's hard to look past the fact that despite his good record with the Packers, Sherman never wins in big games. I was glad when they stripped the GM title from him last Spring but the man really isn't the answer here at coach either. He runs a country club training camp (which leads to more injuries), doesn't know how to motivate his players, and doesn't make the right calls when the game is on the line. Smart man, probably a great coordinator, but not a strong enough head coach.
The season is all but over for the Pack after a 1-5 start and an even further depleted offense with injuries to Ahman Green and Robert Ferguson yesterday. The sad part is, Brett Favre is playing as good of football as he has any time in the past five years. Yesterday's statline: 28 of 35 for 315 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs. That's probably his best performance in two seasons -- need I remind you, with only one of his starting receivers! We can only hope that the man's love for the game will be enough to bring him back in '06.
*Sigh* Time to start looking at the top '06 draft prospects.
At least fantasy football has been fun. My records in my two leagues are 6-1 and 5-2, respectively. In the latter -- the more competitive league -- my team MVP is the Colts Defense/Special Teams. I don't know if that says my team is sad or that I made a real good pick but they've definitely won a few games for me.
On a non-football front, I have a third (and final?) interview for the Marketing & New Business position at the industrial design firm tomorrow. The mock project presentation really wowed the interview managers. The potiential client they assigned me was someone they've already been working with, so it was clutch that my research was right on, and they really liked the marketing ideas I concepted as well. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report back on the next post.
Saw Wedding Crashers over the weekend again with the girlfriend. I forgot how absolutely hilarious Chazz Reingold is -- one of the best niche characters ever. Not too many big movies out that I'd like to see right now but there's a lot of great independent stuff out including Capote, Good Luck and Goodnight, and The Squid and The Whale. I just signed up for a Netflix account a few weeks ago and I love it. My que is nicely backed up with a list of movies that I probably wouldn't go rent over new releases if I was making a trip to Blockbuster.
I still need to pick up the new Matt Pond PA album. The songs I have heard are great though. Go check it out if you like good music.
Cheers,
EH
CURRENT LISTENING: 1972 from Josh Rouse and new Bloc Party tracks
I'm sorry, I know the outcome of the game usually depends more on the execution of the players than the coaching, but it's hard to look past the fact that despite his good record with the Packers, Sherman never wins in big games. I was glad when they stripped the GM title from him last Spring but the man really isn't the answer here at coach either. He runs a country club training camp (which leads to more injuries), doesn't know how to motivate his players, and doesn't make the right calls when the game is on the line. Smart man, probably a great coordinator, but not a strong enough head coach.
The season is all but over for the Pack after a 1-5 start and an even further depleted offense with injuries to Ahman Green and Robert Ferguson yesterday. The sad part is, Brett Favre is playing as good of football as he has any time in the past five years. Yesterday's statline: 28 of 35 for 315 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs. That's probably his best performance in two seasons -- need I remind you, with only one of his starting receivers! We can only hope that the man's love for the game will be enough to bring him back in '06.
*Sigh* Time to start looking at the top '06 draft prospects.
At least fantasy football has been fun. My records in my two leagues are 6-1 and 5-2, respectively. In the latter -- the more competitive league -- my team MVP is the Colts Defense/Special Teams. I don't know if that says my team is sad or that I made a real good pick but they've definitely won a few games for me.
On a non-football front, I have a third (and final?) interview for the Marketing & New Business position at the industrial design firm tomorrow. The mock project presentation really wowed the interview managers. The potiential client they assigned me was someone they've already been working with, so it was clutch that my research was right on, and they really liked the marketing ideas I concepted as well. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report back on the next post.
Saw Wedding Crashers over the weekend again with the girlfriend. I forgot how absolutely hilarious Chazz Reingold is -- one of the best niche characters ever. Not too many big movies out that I'd like to see right now but there's a lot of great independent stuff out including Capote, Good Luck and Goodnight, and The Squid and The Whale. I just signed up for a Netflix account a few weeks ago and I love it. My que is nicely backed up with a list of movies that I probably wouldn't go rent over new releases if I was making a trip to Blockbuster.
I still need to pick up the new Matt Pond PA album. The songs I have heard are great though. Go check it out if you like good music.
Cheers,
EH
CURRENT LISTENING: 1972 from Josh Rouse and new Bloc Party tracks
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Believe it or not, I still post here
So it's been a little while....okay, a long while. Here's a few things that have gone on in my life and the world at large since I last posted:
- I scratched my cornea after getting accidentally poked in the eye amid the post-game celebration of the Gophers' Homecoming game win over Purdue in double-OT
- The gulf coast was hit with another hurricane
- Paris Hilton and her fiance broke up...and no one seemed to care
- The Gophers got smoked by Penn State in Happy Valley
- Tom DeLay was indicted
- The Packers lost more games and started out 0-4 for the first time since the Lindy Infante era
- Ryan Adams released another album, this time going back to his alt-country roots
- I had a job interview at an Industrial Design firm
- Major League Baseball playoffs started...I for one, didn't care
- NHL season play came back...see above
- A major earthquake shook Pakistan
- The Gophers beat #21 Michigan in The Big House
- The Packers got their first victory of the season beating the New Orleans Saints TO THE TUNE OF 52-3
...and last, but certainly not least: Word of Minnesota Vikings throwing a sex party with strippers (or prostitutes?) aboard two rented luxury boats on Lake Minnetonka goes abuzz in the media
I have nowhere near the time or energy to ruminate on all of these happenings and I'm quite sure my opinion about a lot of them would be about as valuable to you as a second youknowwhat hole. What has been lingering on my mind quite a bit lately is my place in life and what I'm going to do in the immediate future. My daily search for jobs usually brings me to the same point of discouragement, though I did recently have an interview for an opportunity that I felt a spike of excitement for (more on that later). The marketing jobs I usually find captivate me about as much as the Twins season-ending series with the Detriot Tigers and I've even started to question whether I still want to go into marketing. What I think would make me happy right now is a copywriting job at a great ad agency, and that isn't possible without a knock-em-dead portfolio. So go to portfolio school, right? Well, if it weren't for the fact that doing so is another $30,000 education investment for a career in a dangerously volitale industry, I'd be there right now. But let's hypothetically take away the big investment and risk involved in it all. I still have issues because my subconscious has also weighed the fact that I should be doing something with my life that makes a more positive impact on the world than generating more consumption. So what is my true calling? Fuck me...I'm having a post-college crisis.
Let's jump out of my sub-conscious and into the real world. The job interview I had last week was with this unique design firm that takes existing products and re-invents them for companies. The position was a Marketing & New Business Development post that they were creating -- sort of a jack-of-all-trades that would handle potential client research, new business marketing and a little PR. The position sounded interesting to me and it would be part of a company that does something to improve people's lives. Yet I go to the interview, come out of it, and have second thoughts on whether I should be there, somewhere else, or sitting in a damn portfolio school class. I still have interest in the position and I'm actually spending time this week on a mock project before having another interview, but I just don't know. It would really be easier if someone came to me in a dream and told me the path that I should follow...or a new one to pave.
I don't know what's with all of the existentialism and self-reflection I've been having lately but I hope I find my way soon. Other things have been good. The Packers finally got a win, and a big one at that. Things are great with my girlfriend. My brother is coming to town this weekend for the Battle of Paul Bunyan's Axe (Wisconsin vs. Minnesota football game). I think I could still use a vacation like I've been talking about for the last couple months. It's not that I deserve one because of an uber-stressful 30-hour work week -- I just need that escape for a few days to completely clear my mind.
Excuse the rant. I'll leave you with a semi-interesting read: Fortune's new list of The 25 People We Envy Most. I don't know if I'd want to be in the shoes of all of them but I can tell you right now that if I was doing what Tiger Woods, Jon Stewart, Theo Epstein, or Jake Burton do I wouldn't have any second-thoughts about my career path.
Until the next episode...
- EH
CURRENT LISTENING: New music by Matt Pond PA, New Pornographers, and Ryan Adams sprinkled with does of Mike Jones for good times' sake
- I scratched my cornea after getting accidentally poked in the eye amid the post-game celebration of the Gophers' Homecoming game win over Purdue in double-OT
- The gulf coast was hit with another hurricane
- Paris Hilton and her fiance broke up...and no one seemed to care
- The Gophers got smoked by Penn State in Happy Valley
- Tom DeLay was indicted
- The Packers lost more games and started out 0-4 for the first time since the Lindy Infante era
- Ryan Adams released another album, this time going back to his alt-country roots
- I had a job interview at an Industrial Design firm
- Major League Baseball playoffs started...I for one, didn't care
- NHL season play came back...see above
- A major earthquake shook Pakistan
- The Gophers beat #21 Michigan in The Big House
- The Packers got their first victory of the season beating the New Orleans Saints TO THE TUNE OF 52-3
...and last, but certainly not least: Word of Minnesota Vikings throwing a sex party with strippers (or prostitutes?) aboard two rented luxury boats on Lake Minnetonka goes abuzz in the media
I have nowhere near the time or energy to ruminate on all of these happenings and I'm quite sure my opinion about a lot of them would be about as valuable to you as a second youknowwhat hole. What has been lingering on my mind quite a bit lately is my place in life and what I'm going to do in the immediate future. My daily search for jobs usually brings me to the same point of discouragement, though I did recently have an interview for an opportunity that I felt a spike of excitement for (more on that later). The marketing jobs I usually find captivate me about as much as the Twins season-ending series with the Detriot Tigers and I've even started to question whether I still want to go into marketing. What I think would make me happy right now is a copywriting job at a great ad agency, and that isn't possible without a knock-em-dead portfolio. So go to portfolio school, right? Well, if it weren't for the fact that doing so is another $30,000 education investment for a career in a dangerously volitale industry, I'd be there right now. But let's hypothetically take away the big investment and risk involved in it all. I still have issues because my subconscious has also weighed the fact that I should be doing something with my life that makes a more positive impact on the world than generating more consumption. So what is my true calling? Fuck me...I'm having a post-college crisis.
Let's jump out of my sub-conscious and into the real world. The job interview I had last week was with this unique design firm that takes existing products and re-invents them for companies. The position was a Marketing & New Business Development post that they were creating -- sort of a jack-of-all-trades that would handle potential client research, new business marketing and a little PR. The position sounded interesting to me and it would be part of a company that does something to improve people's lives. Yet I go to the interview, come out of it, and have second thoughts on whether I should be there, somewhere else, or sitting in a damn portfolio school class. I still have interest in the position and I'm actually spending time this week on a mock project before having another interview, but I just don't know. It would really be easier if someone came to me in a dream and told me the path that I should follow...or a new one to pave.
I don't know what's with all of the existentialism and self-reflection I've been having lately but I hope I find my way soon. Other things have been good. The Packers finally got a win, and a big one at that. Things are great with my girlfriend. My brother is coming to town this weekend for the Battle of Paul Bunyan's Axe (Wisconsin vs. Minnesota football game). I think I could still use a vacation like I've been talking about for the last couple months. It's not that I deserve one because of an uber-stressful 30-hour work week -- I just need that escape for a few days to completely clear my mind.
Excuse the rant. I'll leave you with a semi-interesting read: Fortune's new list of The 25 People We Envy Most. I don't know if I'd want to be in the shoes of all of them but I can tell you right now that if I was doing what Tiger Woods, Jon Stewart, Theo Epstein, or Jake Burton do I wouldn't have any second-thoughts about my career path.
Until the next episode...
- EH
CURRENT LISTENING: New music by Matt Pond PA, New Pornographers, and Ryan Adams sprinkled with does of Mike Jones for good times' sake
Sunday, September 18, 2005
FIRE MIKE SHERMAN
The Packers head coach. Green Bay sucks right now and as much as there is glaring lack of talent at some positions, the coaching is even worse. Sherman does not motivate this team to play and can't put together any semblence of a game plan on offense.
At least fantasy football is exciting.
At least fantasy football is exciting.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Three day weekends are a tease
Too short to be a vacation, yet just long enough to enjoy more than the typical weekend. I had a pretty good one and I hope all of you can say the same.
I ended up at "The Great Minnesota Get-Together" twice. That would be the Minnesota State Fair for those of you of the non-MN ilk. If you go to the State Fair one year, you've basically been there every year. I hold this philosophy, yet still end up going, usually solely for something to do with friends. On Friday, my roommate and I hurried over after my half day of work and arrived in time to catch the last hour of Dan "Common Man" Cole's show broadcasting live on KFAN (our local sports radio). If you've never had the privilege of listening to Common's show, it's basically a two-hour window of half-sports banter, half whatever the hell they randomly end up conversing about. This can range from politics to pop culture to obscure insider jokes and references. Overall, the show is most entertaining due to Common's relationship with his callers -- many of which have a cult-like following -- and his laid-back, yet outlandish jokes and references that involve the ability to both subtlely poke fun at bizarre callers and be self-depricating on various occasions. It makes for an interesting listen almost every day and Friday was no different with a Bob Dylan impersonation contest between Common and State Fair crowd challengers and the second day featuring of the great "Mouth Guitar Man." After eating greasy foods and washing them down with beer we did a walk of most of the grounds and ended up back at the KFAN booth to finish off the day watching an interview with Minnesota Governor Norm Coleman. It was an enjoyable afternoon overall, though a completely different experience from going with my girlfriend on Labor Day, in which we basically walked around getting different foods and doing more "couple-ish" things.
On a more serious note, things started turning around a bit with the situation down in New Orleans. It was good to see things finally being taken care of with the relief effort on the part of the government and even greater to see the millions of Americans reaching out with their wallets, hearts and hands to assist victims of the Hurricane Katrina. I'm not even going to comment on the way the government handled the situation with the disaster -- there are plenty of other blogs out there to read opinions and political analysis. But there was one political critic whose name has been inescapable the media after a comment on an NBC benefit over the weekend: Kanye West. In case you missed it, here's a good run down of what happened. Basically, Kanye deviated from a teleprompted script to offer his own opinion on the matters taking place including a silencing claim that "George Bush does not care about black people." Obviously media pundits have gone nuts over this comment with many of them completely damning West for his comment. I don't know what to think of it. On one hand, I partially agree about Bush, but I don't think it's a matter of race. It's that Bush doesn't really care about POOR people. At the same time, the comment was horribly timed as there is no way this could possibly be good for anything right now. Bush is probably deserving of more criticism for the way he has handled many affairs (most recently this relief effort and many actions that even prefaced the hurricane) but in the current climate of our nation, this polical finger-pointing should really be put on pause. It should be time to focus on cleaning up the gigantic mess and assisting those who are suffering. The Republicans will get what's coming to them in '06 and '08 anyway.
Curveball.
My internship ends on Friday. What's even more uplifting is that I have a job interview for a gig that I'm pretty excited about this week as well. All that and the NFL season kicking off this weekend! It's hard not to feel guilty celebrating given the current face of the nation, but things are positive on this front...
Peace.
I ended up at "The Great Minnesota Get-Together" twice. That would be the Minnesota State Fair for those of you of the non-MN ilk. If you go to the State Fair one year, you've basically been there every year. I hold this philosophy, yet still end up going, usually solely for something to do with friends. On Friday, my roommate and I hurried over after my half day of work and arrived in time to catch the last hour of Dan "Common Man" Cole's show broadcasting live on KFAN (our local sports radio). If you've never had the privilege of listening to Common's show, it's basically a two-hour window of half-sports banter, half whatever the hell they randomly end up conversing about. This can range from politics to pop culture to obscure insider jokes and references. Overall, the show is most entertaining due to Common's relationship with his callers -- many of which have a cult-like following -- and his laid-back, yet outlandish jokes and references that involve the ability to both subtlely poke fun at bizarre callers and be self-depricating on various occasions. It makes for an interesting listen almost every day and Friday was no different with a Bob Dylan impersonation contest between Common and State Fair crowd challengers and the second day featuring of the great "Mouth Guitar Man." After eating greasy foods and washing them down with beer we did a walk of most of the grounds and ended up back at the KFAN booth to finish off the day watching an interview with Minnesota Governor Norm Coleman. It was an enjoyable afternoon overall, though a completely different experience from going with my girlfriend on Labor Day, in which we basically walked around getting different foods and doing more "couple-ish" things.
On a more serious note, things started turning around a bit with the situation down in New Orleans. It was good to see things finally being taken care of with the relief effort on the part of the government and even greater to see the millions of Americans reaching out with their wallets, hearts and hands to assist victims of the Hurricane Katrina. I'm not even going to comment on the way the government handled the situation with the disaster -- there are plenty of other blogs out there to read opinions and political analysis. But there was one political critic whose name has been inescapable the media after a comment on an NBC benefit over the weekend: Kanye West. In case you missed it, here's a good run down of what happened. Basically, Kanye deviated from a teleprompted script to offer his own opinion on the matters taking place including a silencing claim that "George Bush does not care about black people." Obviously media pundits have gone nuts over this comment with many of them completely damning West for his comment. I don't know what to think of it. On one hand, I partially agree about Bush, but I don't think it's a matter of race. It's that Bush doesn't really care about POOR people. At the same time, the comment was horribly timed as there is no way this could possibly be good for anything right now. Bush is probably deserving of more criticism for the way he has handled many affairs (most recently this relief effort and many actions that even prefaced the hurricane) but in the current climate of our nation, this polical finger-pointing should really be put on pause. It should be time to focus on cleaning up the gigantic mess and assisting those who are suffering. The Republicans will get what's coming to them in '06 and '08 anyway.
Curveball.
My internship ends on Friday. What's even more uplifting is that I have a job interview for a gig that I'm pretty excited about this week as well. All that and the NFL season kicking off this weekend! It's hard not to feel guilty celebrating given the current face of the nation, but things are positive on this front...
Peace.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Boom or Bust
A few weeks after my first fantasy football draft (of three this season), I have been pondering the quality of my players and fate of my team. One thing I noticed in looking at my team compared to others in the league is that I tend to draft younger players who have upside or a chance for a breakout season, rather than crafty old veterans. A few examples of this on my roster are Running Backs J.J. Arrington and Mewelde Moore, Wide Receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Lee Evans, and Byron Leftwich at backup QB. These guys are going to make or break my roster. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
The good thing about being in multiple fantasy football leagues (besides it being really fun) is that you can go back and look at how you drafted previously and note any players you may have reached or guys you may have missed out on. I'm pretty confident heading into my next two drafts. The first one was full of hardcore NFL fans who study up and for the most part, know their stuff. The next two are definitely more winnable leagues with about half of the owners being more casual fans. Those leagues are always fun, but I definitely prefer the challenge of trying to win in a league of guys on your level of football knowledge (or higher, of course).
The job search continues. I think I've been a little stressed out about it lately and it's completely unnecessary. I could've easily landed a job a long time ago but I'm only pursing opportunities I really want and it's going to take some time because of that. I still search online on the daily, but I've realized I just need to chill out more and something will hit. My internship is over in less than two weeks and it will be a relief to go back to strictly part-time hours after working 55 a week between my internship and job all summer. I might plan a vacation...nothing major though. It'll definitely be continental U.S., maybe some place where I have a friend to visit (New York, Jackson Hole, Sacramento). As long as it's a place that offers some new and refreshing surroundings. We'll see how much money I have to play with.
My brother left for school last weekend. All this talk of friends and siblings going back to college almost makes me miss it. Thing is, I'll pretty much have the same lifestyle minus the classes and homework in two weeks.
With my brother heading back to school I'm now driving his car for the timebeing. It's ugly. Driving a 1988 Pontiac 6000 is even more inspiration for finding a job soon. At least it's got a nice CD player.
Speaking of CD's, I have to get out and pick up that new Kanye West album. The few tracks I've heard have been stellar and I've read nothing but glowing reviews including 5 stars in Rolling Stone and a 9.5 on Pitchfork (I didn't even know those guys ever gave ratings like that to acts that people have heard of). Look for me next weekend rollin' around in that hot 6000 bumpin' some Kayne. I might be at the State Fair too.
CURRENT LISTENING: Kanye West - "Touch The Sky"
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Red Eye
The good thing about being in multiple fantasy football leagues (besides it being really fun) is that you can go back and look at how you drafted previously and note any players you may have reached or guys you may have missed out on. I'm pretty confident heading into my next two drafts. The first one was full of hardcore NFL fans who study up and for the most part, know their stuff. The next two are definitely more winnable leagues with about half of the owners being more casual fans. Those leagues are always fun, but I definitely prefer the challenge of trying to win in a league of guys on your level of football knowledge (or higher, of course).
The job search continues. I think I've been a little stressed out about it lately and it's completely unnecessary. I could've easily landed a job a long time ago but I'm only pursing opportunities I really want and it's going to take some time because of that. I still search online on the daily, but I've realized I just need to chill out more and something will hit. My internship is over in less than two weeks and it will be a relief to go back to strictly part-time hours after working 55 a week between my internship and job all summer. I might plan a vacation...nothing major though. It'll definitely be continental U.S., maybe some place where I have a friend to visit (New York, Jackson Hole, Sacramento). As long as it's a place that offers some new and refreshing surroundings. We'll see how much money I have to play with.
My brother left for school last weekend. All this talk of friends and siblings going back to college almost makes me miss it. Thing is, I'll pretty much have the same lifestyle minus the classes and homework in two weeks.
With my brother heading back to school I'm now driving his car for the timebeing. It's ugly. Driving a 1988 Pontiac 6000 is even more inspiration for finding a job soon. At least it's got a nice CD player.
Speaking of CD's, I have to get out and pick up that new Kanye West album. The few tracks I've heard have been stellar and I've read nothing but glowing reviews including 5 stars in Rolling Stone and a 9.5 on Pitchfork (I didn't even know those guys ever gave ratings like that to acts that people have heard of). Look for me next weekend rollin' around in that hot 6000 bumpin' some Kayne. I might be at the State Fair too.
CURRENT LISTENING: Kanye West - "Touch The Sky"
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Red Eye
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Chardonnay + Peanuts
This is what the girlfriend and I had while watching Kung-Fu Hustle last night. Definitely not a conventional combination but it turned out to be "pretty dece" as one of my friends would put it. I'll still take an ice-cold beer with my peanuts in a second though. That said, I don't think I'm the type of guy who can ever be a wine conisseur. It's enough for me to get into the different styles and flavors of micro and import beer offerings that I don't think I have a place for wine. Whine doesn't go too well with my love for football either...
Oh yeah, back to the movie. Kung-Fu Hustle was incredibly entertaining. It had the right mix of zany comedy, unique characters, a well-written plot, and of course, crazy special effects-enhanced kung-fu fight scenes. Definitely a two thumbs up.
I'm going to see Big Boi (of Outkast) at First Ave tonight. Not counting Atmosphere, this will be only the fourth hip-hop show I've been to. Would be nice to catch the full duo but I'm sure seeing one half of the Stankonia emcees will still be highly entertaining.
On the music tip, I recently signed up for this service called LastFM. You download this plug-in for iTunes and it tracks the music you listen to and creates charts of the artists and songs you listen to most as well as your most recently played tracks. The whole point of it is, it connects you to other listeners based on your played results and gives you the opportunity to see what other bands people with a similar taste are listening to. It's a pretty cool tool. I haven't listened to enough stuff to create any "neighbors" (people who listen to similar music) yet, but for someone who loves checking out new bands I think this will be pretty awesome service/community tool to use.
Starting Sunday I'll be in Fargo for a few days working for Red Bull. I haven't ever been there and while I don't presume that it will be a very exciting place, I always enjoy visits to new and unfamiliar territory. If anyone knows any quirky, tourist-y things that we should stop and check out or has good bar recommendations (hey, we don't work all day) please post them in the comments.
I think I'll end his one here. One random thought: the NFL preseason is probably the longest 5 weeks of the year (at least since I stopped believing in Santa).
Peace.
CURRENT LISTENING: Days Away - God and Mars
Oh yeah, back to the movie. Kung-Fu Hustle was incredibly entertaining. It had the right mix of zany comedy, unique characters, a well-written plot, and of course, crazy special effects-enhanced kung-fu fight scenes. Definitely a two thumbs up.
I'm going to see Big Boi (of Outkast) at First Ave tonight. Not counting Atmosphere, this will be only the fourth hip-hop show I've been to. Would be nice to catch the full duo but I'm sure seeing one half of the Stankonia emcees will still be highly entertaining.
On the music tip, I recently signed up for this service called LastFM. You download this plug-in for iTunes and it tracks the music you listen to and creates charts of the artists and songs you listen to most as well as your most recently played tracks. The whole point of it is, it connects you to other listeners based on your played results and gives you the opportunity to see what other bands people with a similar taste are listening to. It's a pretty cool tool. I haven't listened to enough stuff to create any "neighbors" (people who listen to similar music) yet, but for someone who loves checking out new bands I think this will be pretty awesome service/community tool to use.
Starting Sunday I'll be in Fargo for a few days working for Red Bull. I haven't ever been there and while I don't presume that it will be a very exciting place, I always enjoy visits to new and unfamiliar territory. If anyone knows any quirky, tourist-y things that we should stop and check out or has good bar recommendations (hey, we don't work all day) please post them in the comments.
I think I'll end his one here. One random thought: the NFL preseason is probably the longest 5 weeks of the year (at least since I stopped believing in Santa).
Peace.
CURRENT LISTENING: Days Away - God and Mars
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
I didn't know I was so popular
Apparently some idiot thought my blog was read widely enough to spam the comments section on the previous post with 3-pages worth of fake stock market sham. That has since been erased, but seriously, there can't be more than 20 people who read this on a given day. Save your junk for e-mail boxes....better yet, leave the world alone!
That's all I have for today. That, and the new Limbeck CD is a really fun album. Can't think of many bands that are better to listen to on the road or when drinkin' with a group of friends. Go get it.
That's all I have for today. That, and the new Limbeck CD is a really fun album. Can't think of many bands that are better to listen to on the road or when drinkin' with a group of friends. Go get it.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Two days in a row
That's right, I did it.
Going to make this a pretty quick one. I wanted to follow up yesterday's post about Quite Frankly by commenting on how hilarious it was to see Stephen A. Smith and Leigh Steinberg call out Rosenhouse's method of operation as an agent. It's about time someone stepped up and stated the obvious publicly.
Today, local blog Slanderous Minneapolis posted their "first annual Slanderous City Awards" and some of them are quite amusing. Here are a couple of the highlights:
* Best Place to Drink Cheaply:
TIE: Liquor Lyle's and Grumpy's Northeast
Best Answer: Under bridge
* Best Place to Pick Up Very Drunk Girls:
Brothers
Best Answer: Wayzata High School
I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball. Can't wait to sit on the couch and watch the Pack tonight. Yes, I know it's only preseason.
CURRENT LISTENING: Phoenix - Everything is Everything (acoustic) courtesy of Stereogum
Going to make this a pretty quick one. I wanted to follow up yesterday's post about Quite Frankly by commenting on how hilarious it was to see Stephen A. Smith and Leigh Steinberg call out Rosenhouse's method of operation as an agent. It's about time someone stepped up and stated the obvious publicly.
Today, local blog Slanderous Minneapolis posted their "first annual Slanderous City Awards" and some of them are quite amusing. Here are a couple of the highlights:
* Best Place to Drink Cheaply:
TIE: Liquor Lyle's and Grumpy's Northeast
Best Answer: Under bridge
* Best Place to Pick Up Very Drunk Girls:
Brothers
Best Answer: Wayzata High School
I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball. Can't wait to sit on the couch and watch the Pack tonight. Yes, I know it's only preseason.
CURRENT LISTENING: Phoenix - Everything is Everything (acoustic) courtesy of Stereogum
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Quite Frankly, I'm surprised
If you watch ESPN even occasionally I'm sure you're well aware of who Stephen A. Smith is. For a while, this guy was the most annoying person I had seen in sports broadcasting. He came onto Sportscenter and NBA broadcasts seemingly out of nowhere and made a lot of noise with his attitude and brash viewpoints and predictions. I wanted to turn the channel at times that this guy would be talking and a friend of mine who was even more annoyed by him went as far as to research what his actual sports credentials were. What he found was that the guy played Community College basketball for two years and averaged something like 17-points per. Not exactly expert material. Well as of a week ago, Stephen A. Smith has his own show called "Quite Frankly" weeknights on ESPN2. I can tell you right now that I was rolling my eyes the first time I saw a promo for it on ESPN. Out of curiosity I watched one of the first shows last week. Now this show is different from all of ESPN's other material -- it's a one hour talk show where Smith sits and gives an indepth interview with various figures of the sports world. After watching the first show, I gotta admit, I was a little intrigued. Smith interviewed Allen Iverson and he asked some good questions that got to the heart of things -- even bringing Iverson to tears over the subject of his relationship with Larry Brown. At the same time, the guy can pump up some of the athletes too much by caking on what he loves about them. Overall, it seems like it's going to be a show worth watching and I'm sure it will draw both praise and quite naturally, sighs of agony from those put off by Smith's personality. I have yet to watch another full episode but I've already TiVo'd tonight's feature that promises to be an intriguing one: Drew Rosenhouse. Oh yeah, for a little more info on Smith's rise to his pseudo-star status...he went from being a beat writer for Temple basketball in the Philadelphia Inquirer to sports columnist to a career with America's biggest Sports Network in 10 years. Not a bad climb.
I was a little aggravated yesterday...my pre-order of the Limbeck album (along with Demon Days by the Gorillaz) did not come . Damn towerrecords.com to hell. In the meantime, I've been listening to The National, Death Cab For Cutie, Days Away, and possibly the album I overlooked the most this year: Ryan Adams' Cold Roses.
Only four days until the long-awaited Fifth Quarter Fantasy Football league draft. You know the wheels are in full motion on the fantasy football think tank!
That's it for the moment. Cheers.
I was a little aggravated yesterday...my pre-order of the Limbeck album (along with Demon Days by the Gorillaz) did not come . Damn towerrecords.com to hell. In the meantime, I've been listening to The National, Death Cab For Cutie, Days Away, and possibly the album I overlooked the most this year: Ryan Adams' Cold Roses.
Only four days until the long-awaited Fifth Quarter Fantasy Football league draft. You know the wheels are in full motion on the fantasy football think tank!
That's it for the moment. Cheers.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Random, random, random
Had a pretty fun weekend, but it went by too fast. They almost always do...
Nothing too exciting going on. Another pretty slow day at the internship but I've happened upon a lot of interesting and funny things on the web today so I'll spare you the usual run-down of my life and give you some fun stuff to check out:
- Jon Heder (of Napoleon Dynamite) is finally going to be in another movie. He'll be co-starring Billy Bob Thornton in School of Scoundrels, a remake of a 60s British comedy of the same name. Heder will portray a meter reader who enrolls in a confidence-building class to help him win over his dream girl. Thornton stars as a motivational speaker with whom he competes for the same girl. The big news...the movie is being directed by Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip). Sounds like it has all the right ingredients...
- Death Cab for Cutie's new album Plans has been leaked (surprise) on the internet and is already receiving raves from bloggers and e-zine elitists. Here's one gushing review of the album.
- Today I discovered a unique brand of entertainment that basically consists of movie shorts made through video game play, voiceovers and some quite clever writing and sponteneity. This new genre is called "machinima" -- "an ungainly term mixing 'machine' and 'cinema'" and thanks to a New York Times Magazine article I was able to kill some time watching the hilarious "Red vs. Blue," a series of mini-movies that spawned from some guys playing Halo 2 and doing voiceovers for the characters. It might sound lame at first but the dialogue (and the creation of characters through it) is quite funny and the plot consists of what might be the existential meaning of the game itself -- two teams of soldiers who are constantly at war but have no idea why. Check it out for yourself and then tell me if it's awesome or I'm just a dork.
- Finally, Limbeck's new album Let Me Come Home comes out tommorow. If haven't heard of Limbeck yet you must be new to this blog. The good part is, now you have an awesome band to check out. From the songs I've heard, the album should be amazing but I'll share some indepth thoughts after I've gone home, torn open the package, and given it a couple listens tommorow.
I'll leave you with a quote that seems to embody my life right now:
"If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." - Lewis Carroll
Nothing too exciting going on. Another pretty slow day at the internship but I've happened upon a lot of interesting and funny things on the web today so I'll spare you the usual run-down of my life and give you some fun stuff to check out:
- Jon Heder (of Napoleon Dynamite) is finally going to be in another movie. He'll be co-starring Billy Bob Thornton in School of Scoundrels, a remake of a 60s British comedy of the same name. Heder will portray a meter reader who enrolls in a confidence-building class to help him win over his dream girl. Thornton stars as a motivational speaker with whom he competes for the same girl. The big news...the movie is being directed by Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip). Sounds like it has all the right ingredients...
- Death Cab for Cutie's new album Plans has been leaked (surprise) on the internet and is already receiving raves from bloggers and e-zine elitists. Here's one gushing review of the album.
- Today I discovered a unique brand of entertainment that basically consists of movie shorts made through video game play, voiceovers and some quite clever writing and sponteneity. This new genre is called "machinima" -- "an ungainly term mixing 'machine' and 'cinema'" and thanks to a New York Times Magazine article I was able to kill some time watching the hilarious "Red vs. Blue," a series of mini-movies that spawned from some guys playing Halo 2 and doing voiceovers for the characters. It might sound lame at first but the dialogue (and the creation of characters through it) is quite funny and the plot consists of what might be the existential meaning of the game itself -- two teams of soldiers who are constantly at war but have no idea why. Check it out for yourself and then tell me if it's awesome or I'm just a dork.
- Finally, Limbeck's new album Let Me Come Home comes out tommorow. If haven't heard of Limbeck yet you must be new to this blog. The good part is, now you have an awesome band to check out. From the songs I've heard, the album should be amazing but I'll share some indepth thoughts after I've gone home, torn open the package, and given it a couple listens tommorow.
I'll leave you with a quote that seems to embody my life right now:
"If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." - Lewis Carroll
Monday, August 01, 2005
I hate cover letters
A cover letter is supposed to give a potential employer a brief overview of why you're interested in the position, their company, and why you'd be an ideal candidate. The catch is, most of this stuff is bull that people cake on in order to hopefully get in for an interview. Most cover letters end up having the same general format and overall message. You can try to infuse some personality into it, but that's difficult to do without getting to an informal level. Best of all, you have to try to impress them while keeping it as concise as possible. You might spend 2 hours researching a company, writing, and revising. Conversely, the HR person is going to spend about 30 seconds or less reading the letter. Since last spring I have probably written at least dozen of these. Kill me now.
Yesterday I was driving back to Minneapolis on 35W North from my parents' house. When you get down by Hwy 13 the highway road is on a slope and you have this great view of the Minneapolis skyline on the horizon. I love that.
One of my college friends who moved out to Omaha this summer for law school is coming back into town this weekend. Definitely looking forward to that. This guy is a staunch (and blindly loyal) Conservative who knows so much about law and history that he can can make you believe he's right in a political debate even when he's dead wrong. Somehow him and I became friends. Given our political positions, this seems highly unlikely to some people. Then we go out and party together and they soon understand.
I'm almost ready to give up on the Twins for the rest of the season. Since the All-Star break we've been on a downward spiral and with the injury to Hunter and lack of a trade made before the deadline, things look to be getting worse. Unless the hitting turns around our playoff hopes are over. It's a bummer too, because more than a Twins playoff berth I really wanted to see the Yankees NOT make the playoffs for once. Maybe that can still happen.
JWalk showed up to the veterans arrival day of Packer camp. I agree with his stance on being grossly underpaid so a cheesehead can only hope he matches or exceeds his level of play from last season and gets rewarded with a contract extension during the season. I'm getting insanely stoked for football season. I wasn't too optimistic about the Green Bay defense a few months ago but from what I've been reading in training camp reports (yes, work downtime) it sounds like Bates could be putting a much improved product on the field. I'm not going to hold my breath for a Super Bowl but it would be great if they could make the playoffs again and have an awesome season for Favre.
Before I go, I must note the hilarious spawn of two of the most popular features to ever hit the internet: HotorNot + Google Maps. Yes folks, you can now find hotties that live in your neighborhood on the internet.
Keep up the barrage of comments!
CURRENT LISTENING: anything by The Secret Machines
Yesterday I was driving back to Minneapolis on 35W North from my parents' house. When you get down by Hwy 13 the highway road is on a slope and you have this great view of the Minneapolis skyline on the horizon. I love that.
One of my college friends who moved out to Omaha this summer for law school is coming back into town this weekend. Definitely looking forward to that. This guy is a staunch (and blindly loyal) Conservative who knows so much about law and history that he can can make you believe he's right in a political debate even when he's dead wrong. Somehow him and I became friends. Given our political positions, this seems highly unlikely to some people. Then we go out and party together and they soon understand.
I'm almost ready to give up on the Twins for the rest of the season. Since the All-Star break we've been on a downward spiral and with the injury to Hunter and lack of a trade made before the deadline, things look to be getting worse. Unless the hitting turns around our playoff hopes are over. It's a bummer too, because more than a Twins playoff berth I really wanted to see the Yankees NOT make the playoffs for once. Maybe that can still happen.
JWalk showed up to the veterans arrival day of Packer camp. I agree with his stance on being grossly underpaid so a cheesehead can only hope he matches or exceeds his level of play from last season and gets rewarded with a contract extension during the season. I'm getting insanely stoked for football season. I wasn't too optimistic about the Green Bay defense a few months ago but from what I've been reading in training camp reports (yes, work downtime) it sounds like Bates could be putting a much improved product on the field. I'm not going to hold my breath for a Super Bowl but it would be great if they could make the playoffs again and have an awesome season for Favre.
Before I go, I must note the hilarious spawn of two of the most popular features to ever hit the internet: HotorNot + Google Maps. Yes folks, you can now find hotties that live in your neighborhood on the internet.
Keep up the barrage of comments!
CURRENT LISTENING: anything by The Secret Machines
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Yo Javon, get in there before you ruin my season!
Javon Walker. Currently my least favorite Packer and one of my two keepers from last year's Fantasy Football team. That means I'm counting on this guy for two big reasons, but with the Packer receving corps in good shape this season, I'm a little bit more worried about how his holdout (should it go into the regular season) will affect my fantasy lineup. I have money riding on this people!
On the subject of holdouts, I think Drew Rosenhouse is on a lot of people's "people to kill" list right now. The guy is a complete bonehead. I know some of these players feel they deserve more money and would probably holdout regardless of agent, but this guy pumps so much crap into players heads about how they're getting screwed and how he can get them a better deal that it's preposterous. It's even more ridiculous that he's doing it with players who just signed a new deal last year (ie. Terrell Owens) and guys who don't have much left in the tank (see: Grady Jackson). I'm not even gonna touch on how much this crap is runining the game for the fans...
I realized this afternoon that I really miss watching Pardon The Interupption on ESPN. It was never a daily thing for me but now that I work until 5:30 every day except Fridays I never get to see it. The things we take for granted...
This post is ending here because as always, the subjects I've been meaning to write about are escaping me. As you may have noticed, I did add links to some blogs that I think are pretty cool. I'm going to leave you with a recommendation of a song that I've been listening to constantly since I've heard it on The Current (God bless them).
Cheers,
EH
CURRENT LISTENING: AC Newman - "Miracle Drug"
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Million Dollar Baby rental - worth the hype
On the subject of holdouts, I think Drew Rosenhouse is on a lot of people's "people to kill" list right now. The guy is a complete bonehead. I know some of these players feel they deserve more money and would probably holdout regardless of agent, but this guy pumps so much crap into players heads about how they're getting screwed and how he can get them a better deal that it's preposterous. It's even more ridiculous that he's doing it with players who just signed a new deal last year (ie. Terrell Owens) and guys who don't have much left in the tank (see: Grady Jackson). I'm not even gonna touch on how much this crap is runining the game for the fans...
I realized this afternoon that I really miss watching Pardon The Interupption on ESPN. It was never a daily thing for me but now that I work until 5:30 every day except Fridays I never get to see it. The things we take for granted...
This post is ending here because as always, the subjects I've been meaning to write about are escaping me. As you may have noticed, I did add links to some blogs that I think are pretty cool. I'm going to leave you with a recommendation of a song that I've been listening to constantly since I've heard it on The Current (God bless them).
Cheers,
EH
CURRENT LISTENING: AC Newman - "Miracle Drug"
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Million Dollar Baby rental - worth the hype
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Zip, nada, nothin'!
It's 3:10pm. Since 10:32am I haven't done a thing at my internship. Nothing, unless you count going to lunch, browsing the web, and talking on AIM. I've asked supervisors if there's anything that I can be doing and have basically gotten the "there's nothing I can think of at the moment" response each time. I was fine with "at the moment," but the amount of boredom I have right now could probably be harnessed and transformed into some sort of alternative fuel resource. There's only so long I can keep my interest tuned into browsing webpages. To make matters worse, I don't have my iPod today and I'm in desperate need of a Red Bull right now.
This place is great but I need some real work. Give me a brief and have me brainstorm 100 different interactive executional concepts. It doesn't matter if you're not going to use ONE of them and if you do, that's one heck of a bonus.
This place is great but I need some real work. Give me a brief and have me brainstorm 100 different interactive executional concepts. It doesn't matter if you're not going to use ONE of them and if you do, that's one heck of a bonus.
Monday, July 11, 2005
That was some wicked air guitar
After a good string of posts, I seemed to have reverted to my old habit of the rare update. Summerfest came and went. We missed Petty, Phantom Planet was pretty cool (besides possibly being the only ones in the crowd old enough to drink legally), and I wish we could've caught more of Rusted Root. Spent a beautiful day by Lake Michigan and introduced another friend to the Safehouse, an activity that is inherently part of every Milwaukee visit. The food sucked but it's still one of the coolest restaurants ever. Overall, it was a good 4th of July weekend.
This past weekend, I spent the evening on a boat on Lake Minnetonka with a group of friends and an open bar. My friend's parents threw him a graduation/birthday party by renting out this boat for 4 hours and allowing a group of recent college grads to go nuts. And we did. The weather was beautiful, the beer was cold, and the Zeppelin was blaring. The night proceeded with a stop at Maynard's and a limo ride back to Uptown. The rest of the details are mucky.
Right now I'm without a cell phone. Coincidentally, it broke the night that I just described. It really wasn't a surprise that it broke given that the hinge of this flip phone was loosely hanging by a thread for the past month. If you own a Samsung Verizon camera phone with a swivel head that rotates 180-degrees and is connected by a small neck-like piece, I hope you have insurance on it. These "customer service" reps at Verizon don't have much sympathy for broken phones so because I'm "not eligible" for the promo prices yet I either have to pay the full retail price on a new phone (about $180 for the bare bones model) or find a used one somewhere. Next time I'M getting the insurance!
Besides music festivals and the 4th, July is great for another thing: the start of NFL training camp. This is the time when football fans start to get that itch for football season and have an unquenchable thirst for any news related to their favorite team. It's a time filled with arm-chair quarterback analysis and hypothesis. Who is going to emerge and be make a needed impact on a weak defense? What rookie is going to make plays? Can the offensive line gel with the holes it has filled? These are all questions I ask about the Pack these days. It's definitely going to be an interesting year and my anticipation for opening day mounts daily. Along with all of this speculation and excitement for the regular season comes the buzz and research of prepping for fantasy football drafts. Last year I was in two leagues, this year it might be three. No wonder women think men are ridiculous when it coms to this stuff.
Time to wrap up. I'm checking out a premiere of Wedding Crashers tonight. Hope it's as funny as it has the potential to be.
CURRENT LISTENING: Black Eyed Peas feat. Q-Tip, Mos Def, and John Legend - Feel It
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Spanglish
This past weekend, I spent the evening on a boat on Lake Minnetonka with a group of friends and an open bar. My friend's parents threw him a graduation/birthday party by renting out this boat for 4 hours and allowing a group of recent college grads to go nuts. And we did. The weather was beautiful, the beer was cold, and the Zeppelin was blaring. The night proceeded with a stop at Maynard's and a limo ride back to Uptown. The rest of the details are mucky.
Right now I'm without a cell phone. Coincidentally, it broke the night that I just described. It really wasn't a surprise that it broke given that the hinge of this flip phone was loosely hanging by a thread for the past month. If you own a Samsung Verizon camera phone with a swivel head that rotates 180-degrees and is connected by a small neck-like piece, I hope you have insurance on it. These "customer service" reps at Verizon don't have much sympathy for broken phones so because I'm "not eligible" for the promo prices yet I either have to pay the full retail price on a new phone (about $180 for the bare bones model) or find a used one somewhere. Next time I'M getting the insurance!
Besides music festivals and the 4th, July is great for another thing: the start of NFL training camp. This is the time when football fans start to get that itch for football season and have an unquenchable thirst for any news related to their favorite team. It's a time filled with arm-chair quarterback analysis and hypothesis. Who is going to emerge and be make a needed impact on a weak defense? What rookie is going to make plays? Can the offensive line gel with the holes it has filled? These are all questions I ask about the Pack these days. It's definitely going to be an interesting year and my anticipation for opening day mounts daily. Along with all of this speculation and excitement for the regular season comes the buzz and research of prepping for fantasy football drafts. Last year I was in two leagues, this year it might be three. No wonder women think men are ridiculous when it coms to this stuff.
Time to wrap up. I'm checking out a premiere of Wedding Crashers tonight. Hope it's as funny as it has the potential to be.
CURRENT LISTENING: Black Eyed Peas feat. Q-Tip, Mos Def, and John Legend - Feel It
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Spanglish
Monday, June 27, 2005
New name, zero improvements!!!
So you may have noticed something changed around here. As I started to post tonight, I decided the blog was due for a name change. Though the last one was fun, it wasn't really a very fitting name and it sounded like the title of a bad emo song. This one is short and sweet and though lacking creativity it summarizes most of what I post about these days in a nutshell. So there you go.
I've been sitting around tonight watching NBA draft coverage and mostly just relaxing. I gotta tell ya it feels great. For someone who recently graduated I actually don't get a lot of time to just lay on the couch and do nothing when I work a full-time internship and another 15 hours per week on top of it. As much as I could care less about watching the NBA these days, I'm always interested in the NBA draft for some reason. To some people it's the most boring three hours of t.v. they could watch but I can get into it. There's something exciting about watching the top prospects get picked and see where guys land if you do a mock draft. It's even better when your team has a top pick. This year, the Bucks pick #1 and the T-Wolves actually have a pick, #14. It seems a given that the Bucks are going to take Center Andrew Bogut from Utah, which I think is great. He's a kid with good size and athleticism, great experience at a high level of play, and he seems to have some good character. It will definitely be interesting to see who Minnesota takes. They need help at a few positions so it's basically going to come down to whoever is left when they pick. I'd love to see Sean May fall into their lap.
While I haven't posted much about it here yet, my anticipation is mounting for the annual trip to Summerfest. In case you haven't heard of it, Summerfest is a 9-day music festival featuring all different types of music and entertainment (from hip-hop artist Talib Kweli to obscure Wisconsin polka bands) and A LOT of beer drinking (What else do you expect from Wisconsin?). I'm going out there Friday night with a few friends and we'll probably try to sneak a spot on the knoll for Tom Petty and The Black Crowes in the Ampitheatre and then Phantom Planet on one of the general admission stages to finish the night. Aaaah Milwaukee...always a good time.
This whole being-graduated thing is providing me a lot more opportunities to write here. That does absolutely nothing to make up for having to wake up at 7:00am five days a week.
See y'all later.
CURRENT LISTENING: Coldplay - X & Y
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Batman Begins
CURRENT READING: Do magazines count?
Thursday, June 23, 2005
That's hot
The tempature reached 100 degrees in Minneapolis today but that still isn't as hot as the new Jessica Simpson video. I don't know if there's any emoticon that could fully capture the feeling of watching it.
NBA Finals Game 7 tonight. I really haven't paid much attention to the entire series but I'm always up for watching a Game 7. I'm cheering for the Pistons for two reasons: one, they're a client of the ad agency I intern at and two, there's something about Greg Poppavich that really irks me. Also, Tim Duncan seems like the nicest player in the NBA but I've never been a fan. Rip Hamilton is the shit though.
MUSIC: More summer tunes and Acceptance!!!
NBA Finals Game 7 tonight. I really haven't paid much attention to the entire series but I'm always up for watching a Game 7. I'm cheering for the Pistons for two reasons: one, they're a client of the ad agency I intern at and two, there's something about Greg Poppavich that really irks me. Also, Tim Duncan seems like the nicest player in the NBA but I've never been a fan. Rip Hamilton is the shit though.
MUSIC: More summer tunes and Acceptance!!!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
I swear I tried to resist
Here I am, writing a blog entry at my internship. The internship is actually going pretty well, but over the last 2 days they haven't been giving me much work to do and I go over and inquire if there's anything I can do with the people in my department so often that if they had something for me they'd shout or at least "put up the bat signal" as one of the project managers joked. So, in lieu of having no tasks at hand I have spend a lot of the day surfing the web (so much that I don't want to be anywhere near a computer when I get home) and concepting/writing headlines and taglines for a possible project in my book. Hopefully they'll throw me to the wolves again next week because I'd much rather be busy all day and feeling like I'm doing a good job than sitting around not doing anything and feeling guilty. With all that lack of work I haven't even gotten in a game of horse on the job in about a week. At least there was free pizza today...
Oh yeah, about my previous post, I got an apology from the one friend who I would've expected to make one. That's cool I guess but he still doesn't have the balls to speak up on things when in the company of certain people.
So with all the time I've had to think over the past few days I've been thinking about my business idea a lot and gotten really excited about it. It just seems like having the money and the right time to do it has been really elusive. I should really get on the planning part now and see if I can get the ball rolling once the internship is done. I feel like I'm going to get caught in a conundrum between getting a job offer with solid pay and benefits and trying to start this business that could take a while to get going and will leave me with nada on the health coverage. If only I had some rich uncle to borrow money from.
On the music tip, I noticed that the dude from American Idol has the #1 album on iTunes today. That is sad. I'd like to know the true demographic of iTunes purchasers because I get the feeling that it's a lot of junior high and high school kids that get that iTunes "allowance" from their parents. Com'on kids, don't waste it on Bo Bice! A band I got into just recently and am REALLY liking is The Redwalls. They have a sound that's very reminiscent of The Beatles, which of course I dig. Their album comes out in a week or two I think but that's added to a long list of albums that I need to get (half of which I'll probably never get around to).
I suppose I could end this now. At least maybe I've been looking busy typing.
One week 'til Summerfest!
- Eric
Oh yeah, about my previous post, I got an apology from the one friend who I would've expected to make one. That's cool I guess but he still doesn't have the balls to speak up on things when in the company of certain people.
So with all the time I've had to think over the past few days I've been thinking about my business idea a lot and gotten really excited about it. It just seems like having the money and the right time to do it has been really elusive. I should really get on the planning part now and see if I can get the ball rolling once the internship is done. I feel like I'm going to get caught in a conundrum between getting a job offer with solid pay and benefits and trying to start this business that could take a while to get going and will leave me with nada on the health coverage. If only I had some rich uncle to borrow money from.
On the music tip, I noticed that the dude from American Idol has the #1 album on iTunes today. That is sad. I'd like to know the true demographic of iTunes purchasers because I get the feeling that it's a lot of junior high and high school kids that get that iTunes "allowance" from their parents. Com'on kids, don't waste it on Bo Bice! A band I got into just recently and am REALLY liking is The Redwalls. They have a sound that's very reminiscent of The Beatles, which of course I dig. Their album comes out in a week or two I think but that's added to a long list of albums that I need to get (half of which I'll probably never get around to).
I suppose I could end this now. At least maybe I've been looking busy typing.
One week 'til Summerfest!
- Eric
CURRENT LISTENING: The Redwalls and a good mix of summeresque music (Jack Johnson, Limbeck, Matt Pond PA, Phoenix, etc.)
Saturday, June 18, 2005
People.
I'm a little hungover so this post isn't going to be too long. I don't understand people sometimes - or maybe I should've called this post "friends." Maybe it's just people my age, but as far as communication and keeping your commitments is concerned, I've found that a substantial amount of people are pretty bad at it. Basically I am writing in reference to last night. I was pre-partying/hanging out with roommates and the girlfriend and a couple other friends and we were all going to go out to this private party a friend of mine was throwing at a bar. To make a long story short, we decided to leave a few minutes before they were going to, only they never showed up (and instead went downtown to meet some skanks at some other bar). I understand when you suggest a plan early in the week and someone says they'd like to come but either forgets about it, forgot about a prior engagement, or has something bigger come up, but when you're pre-partying with a group of friends and you're all planning on going to the same place, you usually expect them to show up. I at least would've respected them a little more if they would've called me to say they were changing plans. It seems to be that the people who most often make commitments only to cancel are either eager to please everyone or they're the type of person who goes along with whatever seems "coolest" at that point in time. Either way, it's things like this that make it a lot clearer who your real friends are and your "that sounds like something fun to do" type friends.
Sorry for that came out as a run-on paragraph of whining, I just had to vent the annoyance a bit. If you're in your 20s you probably know people like this and understand exactly what I'm saying.
Oh yeah...I'm interning in the Interactive department at Olson + Co. now. It's going pretty well so far but I've only been there a week. I'll talk about that more soon. For now jumping back in bed seems like the only viable option for the morning.
Talk soon.
CURRENT LISTENING: Ray LaMontagne - Trouble (damn good album for relaxation)
Sorry for that came out as a run-on paragraph of whining, I just had to vent the annoyance a bit. If you're in your 20s you probably know people like this and understand exactly what I'm saying.
Oh yeah...I'm interning in the Interactive department at Olson + Co. now. It's going pretty well so far but I've only been there a week. I'll talk about that more soon. For now jumping back in bed seems like the only viable option for the morning.
Talk soon.
CURRENT LISTENING: Ray LaMontagne - Trouble (damn good album for relaxation)
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
It feels like it's time for an update
Because what else do I have to do right now? Here I find myself, sitting in my room with time to relax the day the rest of America gets back to work from their weekend of relaxation. Yes folks, this is the life of the recent college grad. Amazingly I did get up by 10:00 today but it's really because I don't want to feel like a lazy bum. My activities so far in this day have consisted of checking my e-mail, reading some news, showering, cleaning up the place a bit, and eating lunch. I do work my part-time job at 3:00 but that's not much of a burden. Everyone keeps telling me I should enjoy this period of time between being a college student and working 9-5 everyday - and I am - but I feel like I'm not quite where I should be either.
But alas, this laid-back lifestyle may be pretty short-lived. I have had a few sparks on the jump front recently. Last week I had an interview at an Event Marketing agency in Milwaukee. I could hear back from them with a job offer as soon as tommorow (although I could also not hear anything at all). I also found an Interactive Internship opportunity with an ad agency I've always dreamed of working for. I shot off my resume pretty hurriedly for a gig that only pays $125 a week. So things are pretty up in the air right now and I'm going to try to go with the flow and not worry about things. I get anxiety when I await responses on opportunities like these so I really just need to keep them out of my head and let them happen. The last time I wasn't worrying about this stuff so hard a call came right out of the blue for an opportunity I had almost forgot about. I could really use a lake or a beach stint for the next few days...
Had a pretty fun weekend of seeing some friends after my interview in the Mil, going out with some friends back in the cities, checking out some live music, and eating way too much. Speaking of the live music, what's with random, out-of-place older people at concerts? Last night I saw Lucero and The Honorary Title at Triple Rock (two very underrated bands I must add) and I saw more than a few of these types in crowd, particularly one couple who looked to be in their fifties. I always figure these people are either label reps or family, but how many people can be at a show like this for some indie label bands? Strange. I'm not hating though - if these people are really just fans of the music more power to 'em. I'll probably be that "too old for concerts-looking" type guy someday myself.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot the sweet news: our NSAC (Nat'l Student Advertising Competition) team qualified for the National Competition. This is taking place this weekend (June 4-7) in Nashville, TN and coincides with the American Advertising Federation National Conference. This pretty much means a few days in a famous hotel/complex (the Gaylord Opry), rubbing shoulders with major Ad execs, and a lot of whiskey. Sounds like fun to me. Too bad I have a pretty strong distaste for country music...don't ask how I like Lucero.
I guess that's really all that's on my mind for a moment. I think of a thousand different things I'd like to vent or comment on when I'm away from home during the week only to be too busy to post something or just forget altogether. Thanks to the couple people who bug me about not updating this for a while.
'Til I return from Honky-Tonk Heaven...
Eric
CURRENT LISTENING: The Format - Snails EP and Lucero - Nobody's Darlings
But alas, this laid-back lifestyle may be pretty short-lived. I have had a few sparks on the jump front recently. Last week I had an interview at an Event Marketing agency in Milwaukee. I could hear back from them with a job offer as soon as tommorow (although I could also not hear anything at all). I also found an Interactive Internship opportunity with an ad agency I've always dreamed of working for. I shot off my resume pretty hurriedly for a gig that only pays $125 a week. So things are pretty up in the air right now and I'm going to try to go with the flow and not worry about things. I get anxiety when I await responses on opportunities like these so I really just need to keep them out of my head and let them happen. The last time I wasn't worrying about this stuff so hard a call came right out of the blue for an opportunity I had almost forgot about. I could really use a lake or a beach stint for the next few days...
Had a pretty fun weekend of seeing some friends after my interview in the Mil, going out with some friends back in the cities, checking out some live music, and eating way too much. Speaking of the live music, what's with random, out-of-place older people at concerts? Last night I saw Lucero and The Honorary Title at Triple Rock (two very underrated bands I must add) and I saw more than a few of these types in crowd, particularly one couple who looked to be in their fifties. I always figure these people are either label reps or family, but how many people can be at a show like this for some indie label bands? Strange. I'm not hating though - if these people are really just fans of the music more power to 'em. I'll probably be that "too old for concerts-looking" type guy someday myself.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot the sweet news: our NSAC (Nat'l Student Advertising Competition) team qualified for the National Competition. This is taking place this weekend (June 4-7) in Nashville, TN and coincides with the American Advertising Federation National Conference. This pretty much means a few days in a famous hotel/complex (the Gaylord Opry), rubbing shoulders with major Ad execs, and a lot of whiskey. Sounds like fun to me. Too bad I have a pretty strong distaste for country music...don't ask how I like Lucero.
I guess that's really all that's on my mind for a moment. I think of a thousand different things I'd like to vent or comment on when I'm away from home during the week only to be too busy to post something or just forget altogether. Thanks to the couple people who bug me about not updating this for a while.
'Til I return from Honky-Tonk Heaven...
Eric
CURRENT LISTENING: The Format - Snails EP and Lucero - Nobody's Darlings
Monday, May 09, 2005
Now it'll be "immature" to do a beer bong
I've reached that time...I'm officially no longer a college student. While I don't have that piece of paper that states this fact quite yet, the deal is sealed.
Weird.
Weird.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
And the countdown begins...
So it's April 7th. There's nothing significant about the day itself, but in the larger scheme of things, it means I only have about a month of my college career left. As I've mentioned in previous posts, this is both exciting and a little nerve-racking. Being an aspiring copywriter, I have little hope of attaining a full-time job right out of school (although I have recently applied for a few promotions and events marketing jobs) which means I will either be continuing to work for Red Bull all summer or working for Red Bull and interning somewhere. I pray for the latter. Either way, if I'm not working the standard 9-5er, I have decided that I am going to go on a megadope road trip out west. The plan is entirely rough right now but it would probably consist of staying with my buddy Adam out in Jackson Hole (where he'll be a guide on the Snake River all summer), then to my buddy's parents' Condo on Lake Tahoe, and finally out to the beautiful beaches of the California coast. This road trip will consist of amazing music, incessant photo capturing, tons of gas station and fast food, a high level of (insert fun word for binge here) drinking, and the jokes and pranks that are inherent in any good road trip. Suddently that 9-5 doesn't sound so necessary...
But enough of the time is short sob story. The next months could be one of the best of my life. Starting tommorow...er, today I guess (it's after midnight here for all you confused readers) I'll be hearing back from the One Show College Competition on whether or not my campaign is a finalist for the Awards. Then, we have a Gopher hockey game tommorow night which could catapult us into our third champship game in three years. But wait, it gets better...Twins home opener and the 4 hours of tailgating that will preceed it on Friday and within a few weeks the NSAC Regional Competition, The 2nd Annual Phi Psi bar crawl, and Spring Jam week at 'The U.' I'll keep you updated on the fun.
I'm going to cut this short for now but before I go I'd like to say R.I.P. to comedian Mitch Hedberg, a truly hilarious and unique comedian and Minnesota native who passed away last week.
On a much larger scale, I also feel it is necessary to show some respect for the passing of Pope John Paul II. Although I may not be the most religious man and that type of material definitely does not get touched upon in this blog, I am a person of faith and I would definitely like to recognize the amazing things he did for the world in his life time. I am sure that he is already getting quite comfortable in his seat next to God up there...
But enough of the time is short sob story. The next months could be one of the best of my life. Starting tommorow...er, today I guess (it's after midnight here for all you confused readers) I'll be hearing back from the One Show College Competition on whether or not my campaign is a finalist for the Awards. Then, we have a Gopher hockey game tommorow night which could catapult us into our third champship game in three years. But wait, it gets better...Twins home opener and the 4 hours of tailgating that will preceed it on Friday and within a few weeks the NSAC Regional Competition, The 2nd Annual Phi Psi bar crawl, and Spring Jam week at 'The U.' I'll keep you updated on the fun.
I'm going to cut this short for now but before I go I'd like to say R.I.P. to comedian Mitch Hedberg, a truly hilarious and unique comedian and Minnesota native who passed away last week.
On a much larger scale, I also feel it is necessary to show some respect for the passing of Pope John Paul II. Although I may not be the most religious man and that type of material definitely does not get touched upon in this blog, I am a person of faith and I would definitely like to recognize the amazing things he did for the world in his life time. I am sure that he is already getting quite comfortable in his seat next to God up there...
Thursday, March 24, 2005
The stairs aren't my friend
Over last couple days, I think I've tripped while going up public staircases 4 or 5 times. I don't know if the frequency of this happening is because of my boots or the fact that I just wasn't paying enough attention. Nonetheless, it sucks. It especially sucks when you trip on the stairs in the Carlson School of Management while drinking a pop. The thing didn't completely spill but lets just say I got a bit of a splash to the face.
On a good note, the weather was fantastic yesterday. It's crazy how noticably better people's moods are when the weather is really nice in Minnesota. I notice it in myself. That reminds me why I need to move to California.
Another thing that's really awesome is that it's only two weeks until baseball's opening day. I'm not the biggest baseball fan as sometimes I get bored with the game but I have a great time making a day of going out to a game with some friends and tailgaiting. I have my Twins home opener ticket in my wallet as we speak and the thought of a fired-up grill and flowing beer in the parking lot is lovely. Gotta love the Twinkies...no steroid users.
Finally, I got a pretty sweet (though very belated) birthday gift from my girlfriend. She got me this messenger bag made by this company called LoopNYC out of where else but New York. What makes it awesome is the unique style and materials that comprise it - specifically the shoulder strap made out of the same strong synthetic material as a car seatbelt. It'll be nice having this thing because with the amount of stuff I'm usually lugging around in my backpack my back hates me sometimes. Anyway, here's a picture of the bag:
I'm sure you're amazed I updated again so soon. I can't even believe it myself. I'll definitely try to write with this type of frequency more often. By the way, if you do read this blog, drop a comment every once in a while and let me know what you think.
Until next time, I'll be at the Bacon Tendercrisp Cheddar Ranch.
CURRENT LISTENING: 3 new jams from a Limbeck live college radio performance
On a good note, the weather was fantastic yesterday. It's crazy how noticably better people's moods are when the weather is really nice in Minnesota. I notice it in myself. That reminds me why I need to move to California.
Another thing that's really awesome is that it's only two weeks until baseball's opening day. I'm not the biggest baseball fan as sometimes I get bored with the game but I have a great time making a day of going out to a game with some friends and tailgaiting. I have my Twins home opener ticket in my wallet as we speak and the thought of a fired-up grill and flowing beer in the parking lot is lovely. Gotta love the Twinkies...no steroid users.
Finally, I got a pretty sweet (though very belated) birthday gift from my girlfriend. She got me this messenger bag made by this company called LoopNYC out of where else but New York. What makes it awesome is the unique style and materials that comprise it - specifically the shoulder strap made out of the same strong synthetic material as a car seatbelt. It'll be nice having this thing because with the amount of stuff I'm usually lugging around in my backpack my back hates me sometimes. Anyway, here's a picture of the bag:
I'm sure you're amazed I updated again so soon. I can't even believe it myself. I'll definitely try to write with this type of frequency more often. By the way, if you do read this blog, drop a comment every once in a while and let me know what you think.
Until next time, I'll be at the Bacon Tendercrisp Cheddar Ranch.
CURRENT LISTENING: 3 new jams from a Limbeck live college radio performance
Monday, March 21, 2005
March Madness...Literally
So it's 3:42 am on a Sunday night and I just woke up from falling asleep in front of the t.v. on the couch. That also means that my spring break is officially over although I'm not so sure I ever really got one. The past week was possiblily just as chaotic (or dare I say MORE) than the normal week for me. Besides being that exciting and crazy time of year for NCAA baksetball - which I'll get back to in a second - the term "March Madness" could apply to several things about my spring break week. First off, the weekend trip to Milwaukee last weekend to visit a couple high school friends. Now anyone who has ever been to Milwaukee can see where this is going but for the kids who aren't 21 or have no interest whatsoever in going to Wisconsin I'll just throw out the random fact that Milwaukee has the most bars per capita out of all of the major U.S. cities. Couple that with the fact that we drove right into a blizzard Friday night that was so bad that we had to stop the car at one point because we couldn't see the road at all (I swear I wasn't hallucinating) and you have a pretty crazy weekend in the bag. Overall the trip was a great time but I still don't consider that a spring break as I'd take a 3-day road trip to Milwaukee over any normal weekend of the year.
Next, we have the madness of NSAC. That's the National Student Advertising Competition in case you don't take classes in Murphy Hall. I won't get into it too much but right now our team is right in the thick of developing a campaign to brand and promote Yahoo! to 13-17 year olds. It's an interesting challenge and a tough one. How tough? The past week saw us carving away at the campaign work day and night. It's rewarding to believe our work has paid off and we've pounded out what looks like a great campaign but it's definitely been stressful. Madness.
Finally, there's the college basketball tourney which I'm disappointed to have only watched a combined 86 minutes of...approximately. Of course I'm in two pools and of course I made plenty of "educated" (see: ESPN analysis) sleeper picks, but a lot of them turned out to be the wrong ones. Who would've thought Syracuse, UConn, and Wake Forest would be out by the third round? Obviously not my bracket. So with Wake out, I lose one of my Final Four picks and I'm not so sure where my chances of winning the dough are. I still have plenty of teams in it along with my Champion, North Carolina, whom I picked to win over Illinois. Assuming that I'm not going to take home the cake I'm pulling for UW-Milwaukee to continue to turn the basketball world upside down. I did at least pick them for the first round upset - PANTHERS BABY!!!
To wrap this up, I'm going to do a little something that is a tradition of one of my favorite bands on their website. That is, post my "Top 5" for the month. This Top 5 is a loose list of any 5 random things making life fun, interesting, or exciting right now. It can be themed but usually has no such organization to it at all. Anyway, here goes:
Top 5 for the month of March
1 - Surviving the drive through the blizzard of '05
2 - NSAC campaign work in full throttle
3 - UW-Milwaukee Panthers
4 - trip to Milwaukee
5 - Kings of Leon show @ The Fine Line
Hope you're doing just fine.
CURRENT LISTENING: Songs from both of the latest Bright Eyes releases (and Aaron Rhody's fantastic trip mix)
Next, we have the madness of NSAC. That's the National Student Advertising Competition in case you don't take classes in Murphy Hall. I won't get into it too much but right now our team is right in the thick of developing a campaign to brand and promote Yahoo! to 13-17 year olds. It's an interesting challenge and a tough one. How tough? The past week saw us carving away at the campaign work day and night. It's rewarding to believe our work has paid off and we've pounded out what looks like a great campaign but it's definitely been stressful. Madness.
Finally, there's the college basketball tourney which I'm disappointed to have only watched a combined 86 minutes of...approximately. Of course I'm in two pools and of course I made plenty of "educated" (see: ESPN analysis) sleeper picks, but a lot of them turned out to be the wrong ones. Who would've thought Syracuse, UConn, and Wake Forest would be out by the third round? Obviously not my bracket. So with Wake out, I lose one of my Final Four picks and I'm not so sure where my chances of winning the dough are. I still have plenty of teams in it along with my Champion, North Carolina, whom I picked to win over Illinois. Assuming that I'm not going to take home the cake I'm pulling for UW-Milwaukee to continue to turn the basketball world upside down. I did at least pick them for the first round upset - PANTHERS BABY!!!
To wrap this up, I'm going to do a little something that is a tradition of one of my favorite bands on their website. That is, post my "Top 5" for the month. This Top 5 is a loose list of any 5 random things making life fun, interesting, or exciting right now. It can be themed but usually has no such organization to it at all. Anyway, here goes:
Top 5 for the month of March
1 - Surviving the drive through the blizzard of '05
2 - NSAC campaign work in full throttle
3 - UW-Milwaukee Panthers
4 - trip to Milwaukee
5 - Kings of Leon show @ The Fine Line
Hope you're doing just fine.
CURRENT LISTENING: Songs from both of the latest Bright Eyes releases (and Aaron Rhody's fantastic trip mix)
Monday, February 28, 2005
Which cartoon character will be on the Most Wanted list next?
By now everyone must have heard about the ridiculous claims by some conservative group that the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants teaches kids about homosexuality because Spongebob happened to hold hands with one of the other characters when out on the trail of adventure. I thought this claim was insane enough but apparently it was only the beginning. While I was getting ready this morning I happened to turn on the tv while I was sitting down to eat my bagel (both of which happen very rarely as I'm usually in a rush each morning). The channel that turned on was playing some talk show where women were discussing the implications of cartoon characters depictions on children's minds and the first example I heard was the fact that Donald Duck doesn't wear any clothing on his bottom half. Are these people INSANE? Last time I checked I grew up watching every cartoon from Looney Tunes to Beavis and Butthead and I'm pretty sure I've turned out just fine. It's funny how all these ultra-conservatives (the religious right) want to spread "freedom" abroad, yet at the same time try to find any reason they can to censor every source of media out there. Why don't these lunatics all just go buy some island, as I'm sure they have the money anyway, name it Freedom Island, and live there together as one big cult-like family happily ever after.
What a great way to start out a Monday. I usually am not one to come down with a "case of the Mondays" but since I woke up feeling even more shitty from a cold than the day before, it directly transformed me into a state crankiness. Hearing crazy conservative talk during this type of state is certainly not the best thing for it.
On another note, it was great to see the Vikings ship off Randy Moss last week. One side of me was sad to see him go because I love to see his dejection whenever the Vikes lose to the Packers, yet on the other side it's great to not have to worry about the threat of him scoring on our lackluster defensive backs when he's playing at 75% health. That's about all that's been interesting to me on the football front lately. Favre hasn't made his announcement yet (which I hope means he's moving closer to coming back) and the draft is still a month and a half away. It's too long 'til football season...
Luckily, March brings college basketball excitement and for the first time in a long time my beloved Gophers may be in the tourney. After suffering through two disheartening NIT-bound seasons as a basketball season ticket-holder, I didn't get tickets the last two years. This year I was expecting absolutely nothing out of the team (as many probably were), due to the fact that they seemed to have no real impact players on the team. But alas, some Juco transfers played much bigger than expected and the Gophers proved the value of having a real TEAM. Though they've been a bit inconsistent, the Gophs can explode at any time as they did Saturday against Purdue and earlier this season against Wisconsin - an amazing game which I attended - and proved that they can run with some good teams. Let's hope they continue to play strong in the Big Ten Tourney and DANCE, DANCE, DANCE!
Back on the personal route, my job/internship search continues. I'm getting a bit frustrated by the fact that Minneapolis is such a great city for advertising, yet I haven't seen one copywriting/creative internship at an agency (even more thin are the chances of getting in as a junior creative). It really sucks hearing of your other graduating friends interviewing and/or getting real jobs before they graduate and then having to explain to people how difficult it is to get into the ad industry as a creative. Most people don't have a clue how much reality there is to that statement so I figure I should just start telling everyone that I've decided to take a year off after college to travel the country in an old conversion van and explore the meaning of life. "Let's keep in touch!"
If you've actually read I'll this, thanks for tuning in. I'll try to make the next update sooner than a month from now.
CURRENT LISTENING: Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
What a great way to start out a Monday. I usually am not one to come down with a "case of the Mondays" but since I woke up feeling even more shitty from a cold than the day before, it directly transformed me into a state crankiness. Hearing crazy conservative talk during this type of state is certainly not the best thing for it.
On another note, it was great to see the Vikings ship off Randy Moss last week. One side of me was sad to see him go because I love to see his dejection whenever the Vikes lose to the Packers, yet on the other side it's great to not have to worry about the threat of him scoring on our lackluster defensive backs when he's playing at 75% health. That's about all that's been interesting to me on the football front lately. Favre hasn't made his announcement yet (which I hope means he's moving closer to coming back) and the draft is still a month and a half away. It's too long 'til football season...
Luckily, March brings college basketball excitement and for the first time in a long time my beloved Gophers may be in the tourney. After suffering through two disheartening NIT-bound seasons as a basketball season ticket-holder, I didn't get tickets the last two years. This year I was expecting absolutely nothing out of the team (as many probably were), due to the fact that they seemed to have no real impact players on the team. But alas, some Juco transfers played much bigger than expected and the Gophers proved the value of having a real TEAM. Though they've been a bit inconsistent, the Gophs can explode at any time as they did Saturday against Purdue and earlier this season against Wisconsin - an amazing game which I attended - and proved that they can run with some good teams. Let's hope they continue to play strong in the Big Ten Tourney and DANCE, DANCE, DANCE!
Back on the personal route, my job/internship search continues. I'm getting a bit frustrated by the fact that Minneapolis is such a great city for advertising, yet I haven't seen one copywriting/creative internship at an agency (even more thin are the chances of getting in as a junior creative). It really sucks hearing of your other graduating friends interviewing and/or getting real jobs before they graduate and then having to explain to people how difficult it is to get into the ad industry as a creative. Most people don't have a clue how much reality there is to that statement so I figure I should just start telling everyone that I've decided to take a year off after college to travel the country in an old conversion van and explore the meaning of life. "Let's keep in touch!"
If you've actually read I'll this, thanks for tuning in. I'll try to make the next update sooner than a month from now.
CURRENT LISTENING: Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
Friday, January 14, 2005
Let's call it "snot-freezing" cold
Today the tempatures are hovering below zero. Tempature gauges are shattering, wolves are howling, and if you were to cry outside the tear would probably freeze before it hit the ground. As I was walking from Coffman Union to my campus job this afternoon, it hit me that Minnesotans really needed a term for this type of uber-chilly weather - something other than the typical "cold as (insert expletive here)." And it took no less than a minute for me to coin a term. All I had to do was think about the sensations my body was feeling and there was one that stood out more extremely than any others. The feeling in my nose. So from this day forth, the Minnesota days that sit on the other side of the zero are going to be known as "snot-freezing cold." There will be no dispute over this so just go ahead and adobt it now.
As any of you who still might actually check this blog (which could very well be no one) may have noticed, I post at the most random times, with updates being very few and far between. Sorry, that's just the way it's going to be. I forget about having this thing a lot of the time and that probably stems from being far too busy and spending my free nights "drinkin' with the boys." So if you read this and do care to read it again, I'd say check back every 2-3 weeks. Thanks dudes.
Since a lot has gone on since I last posted, I'm going to put together some recent news that I'm interested in and my brief thoughts on them. Here goes...
-VOX Medusa Around The World New Year's Eve party....interesting idea, wasn't quite what I expected. The venue was cool (but not really decorated to theme), it was hard to get drinks, and the crowd was older than my friends and I. Luckily I had a lot to drink that night.
-Turning 22....not that cool. Granted, I had a great time celebrating my birthday (and being alive another year), it just sucks knowing you don't have anything really eventful to look forward to with the birthdays after 21. Wait nevermind, in a few years I can save money on car insurance!!!
-Green Bay's first-round playoff loss to Minnesota....I'm not ready to talk about this one yet.
-Green Bay's hiring of Ted Thompson as GM....it's about time that title was stripped from Sherman. This guy sounds promising. Now we can only hope that Brett will stick around and Thompson makes the right coaching, drafting, and free agency moves. Not that much to ask, is it?
-Graduating in 2005....I have a little over 4 months left in my college career. That's both exciting and scary on a few levels. On one hand, I'll be ecstatic to start making money and not rack up any more debt, yet I'll be weeping to leave the college life when I start the 40-60 hour work week. I think it would help if I got some traveling in some time next summer.
-Music in 2005....it could be a very exciting year of new releases. Personally, I'm heavily ancipating new albums from Coldplay, Limbeck, The Format, Motion City Soundtrack, Brand New, Acceptance, The Mars Volta, Beck, Ryan Adams, The Flaming Lips, Outkast, and hopefully some new Kanye West.
-USA in 2005....okay that just sounds funny but on a serious note let's hope that we can get out of the mess in Iraq, that our contributions to the Tsunami disaster aid might help improve other nations' view of America, and that W. can manage not that fuck things up any worse.
Two fingers,
Eric
CURRENT LISTENING: Green Day - American Idiot (my pick for album of the year in 2004!)
As any of you who still might actually check this blog (which could very well be no one) may have noticed, I post at the most random times, with updates being very few and far between. Sorry, that's just the way it's going to be. I forget about having this thing a lot of the time and that probably stems from being far too busy and spending my free nights "drinkin' with the boys." So if you read this and do care to read it again, I'd say check back every 2-3 weeks. Thanks dudes.
Since a lot has gone on since I last posted, I'm going to put together some recent news that I'm interested in and my brief thoughts on them. Here goes...
-VOX Medusa Around The World New Year's Eve party....interesting idea, wasn't quite what I expected. The venue was cool (but not really decorated to theme), it was hard to get drinks, and the crowd was older than my friends and I. Luckily I had a lot to drink that night.
-Turning 22....not that cool. Granted, I had a great time celebrating my birthday (and being alive another year), it just sucks knowing you don't have anything really eventful to look forward to with the birthdays after 21. Wait nevermind, in a few years I can save money on car insurance!!!
-Green Bay's first-round playoff loss to Minnesota....I'm not ready to talk about this one yet.
-Green Bay's hiring of Ted Thompson as GM....it's about time that title was stripped from Sherman. This guy sounds promising. Now we can only hope that Brett will stick around and Thompson makes the right coaching, drafting, and free agency moves. Not that much to ask, is it?
-Graduating in 2005....I have a little over 4 months left in my college career. That's both exciting and scary on a few levels. On one hand, I'll be ecstatic to start making money and not rack up any more debt, yet I'll be weeping to leave the college life when I start the 40-60 hour work week. I think it would help if I got some traveling in some time next summer.
-Music in 2005....it could be a very exciting year of new releases. Personally, I'm heavily ancipating new albums from Coldplay, Limbeck, The Format, Motion City Soundtrack, Brand New, Acceptance, The Mars Volta, Beck, Ryan Adams, The Flaming Lips, Outkast, and hopefully some new Kanye West.
-USA in 2005....okay that just sounds funny but on a serious note let's hope that we can get out of the mess in Iraq, that our contributions to the Tsunami disaster aid might help improve other nations' view of America, and that W. can manage not that fuck things up any worse.
Two fingers,
Eric
CURRENT LISTENING: Green Day - American Idiot (my pick for album of the year in 2004!)
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